Tactical Briefing 03: Squad and Fire Team Movements

by Chuck “Magnum” Ankenbauer

Series Introduction

Welcome to the third in a series of articles discussing different aspects of squad and team level virtual combat. All of this information is taken from real world sources and modified for gaming purposes.

If you have any interest in playing tactical shooters on either a next gen console and / or a personal computer then I hope this and subsequent articles will help you get the most out of your gaming. Sure, you can continue to play a shooter as a run and gun, you paid for it, but if you’re like me you prefer to play tactical shooters with an emphasis on tactics and teamwork. These articles are geared toward that type of gamer.

– Magnum

Tactical Briefing 03:
Squad and Fire Team Movements

Introduction

In today’s brief we will be discussing the squad and fire team movements and when to use which type. We will also discuss danger areas and crossing techniques.

Movement Techniques

A movement technique is the way you as an individual, or as a fire team, or a squad move through terrain. There are three common military style movement techniques most used for a fire team or squad. These three movements we will discuss are traveling, traveling overwatch, and bounding overwatch.

The selection of movement is determined by either the fire team leader or the squad leader, and based on likelihood of enemy contact and the need for speed. In real life these movements and formations are given with hand and arm signals, but in our virtual computer world most of the time it’s over a voice communications program. Any of the movement techniques listed below can be used with any of the formations we discussed inTactical Briefing 02: Formations.

Traveling

Traveling is used when enemy contact is not likely and speed is needed. With traveling you have good, but not great control over your element. Your element is less dispersed. Your speed is fast, but security is weak.

With traveling you simply form up in the ordered formation and move out from point A to point B. You are trying to get somewhere quick, but not too worried about security at the moment. Most of the time you’re behind friendly controlled lines.

To see a video of a squad, broken down into two fire teams, using the “Traveling Movement” technique click here. The 1.44MB .wmv file is zipped.

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Related posts:

Tactical Briefing 01: Meet the Squad Tactical Briefing 01: Meet the Squad Page 2 Tactical Briefing 02: Formations Tactical Briefing 03: Squad and Fire Team Movements Page 2 Tactical Briefing 03: Squad and Fire Team Movements Page 3 Tactical Briefing 04: Movement to Contact Tactical Briefing 05: How to Plan and Execute a Squad Sized Assault Tactical Briefing 05: How to Plan and Execute a Squad Sized Assault Page 6